In 1957, Jordan Tang drove his beat-up, crimson Ford from Stillwater to Oklahoma City. When it was cold, Tang had to pour gasoline into the carburetor to get it to start, but on this particular day the car ran well. This was fortunate, because the young scientist had a job interview at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
Forty-nine years later, Tang has become one of OMRF’s and Oklahoma’s most accomplished scientists. But his story—from humble beginnings to life-changing discoveries—is not just his own. It’s the tale of OMRF, which celebrates its 60th birthday on Friday.
Chartered in 1946, OMRF began with a 77-county fund drive. The statewide effort benefited from, among other things, proceeds of a prize fight featuring Sugar Ray Robinson, a $25,000 donation orchestrated by Stork Club owner (and Oklahoma native) Sherman Billingsley and coin bucket collections at sporting events. Oklahoma wheat producers also pledged a percentage of their crops to OMRF. In one year alone, the farmers dedicated 9,000 bushels to OMRF.
OMRF had only 80 employees when, in 1957, Tang received—and accepted—a job as a research technician. “I was hired at a salary of $275 a month,” said Tang. “They told me that if they were happy with me after three months, they would raise my salary to $300 a month.”
Tang received that $25 raise—and many more. Indeed, for almost a half-century, he has called OMRF home. And in the intervening decades, he made major contributions to human health, discovering a previously unknown stomach protein, making crucial contributions to AIDS research and pinpointing an enzyme instrumental in the formation of Alzheimer’s disease.
Today, in addition to Tang, OMRF counts more than 500 staff members, including some of the world’s foremost immunologists and cardiovascular biologists. And it has become one of the nation’s leading independent medical research institutes.
OMRF’s scientists concentrate on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and heart disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences, and its researchers regularly publish papers in Nature, Cell, The New England Journal of Medicine and other leading scientific journals.
“The science at OMRF is phenomenal, but what really distinguishes us is our track record of translating lab work into diagnostics and treatments for disease,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott. “OMRF has given birth to more drugs and tests than many large research universities. And that’s because we’re not just focused on making discoveries—we’re working to make discoveries that make a difference.”
OMRF’s work has given birth to Xigris, the first and only FDA-approved treatment for a blood infection that claims 500,000 lives each year, and Ceprotin, a revolutionary drug to treat children suffering from life-threatening blood-clotting complications. OMRF discoveries have helped create a risk assessment test for breast cancer and an experimental drug for the treatment of stroke.
Along the way, OMRF has received more than 250,000 individual gifts from Oklahomans. The support has come from leading philanthropic organizations like the Chapman Trusts in Tulsa and the Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City. But it’s also come from lesser-known givers like the little Edmond boy who, two summers ago, brought in the $12 he earned selling lemonade.
“All of it matters,” said Prescott. As an independent, not-for-profit institute, OMRF is not part of a university or of the state. “So donations from individuals are crucial,” he said. “Without them, we couldn’t provide our scientists with the seed money to break new research ground.”
Over the last decade, the foundation’s grant funding has grown at a rate matched by few medical research centers in the country. But Prescott is emphatic that OMRF must not rest on its laurels. “If we want to continue to compete with the institutions on the coasts, we must keep growing,” he said. To that end, OMRF plans to begin construction on a new research tower that will grow OMRF’s staff to nearly 1,000 employees in the coming decade.
Jordan Tang just smiles when asked whether he saw all of this coming when he first arrived at OMRF. “We knew the institution was going to grow because there was such good support from the entire state of Oklahoma,” he said. “But I certainly did not expect to see it grow this much.”
OMRF’s 60th birthday party will take place at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum on Friday. High-resolution digital photos of Jordan Tang and OMRF are available upon request.
In 1957, Jordan Tang drove his beat-up, crimson Ford from Stillwater to Oklahoma City. When it was cold, Tang had to pour gasoline into the carburetor to get it to start, but on this particular day the car ran well. This was fortunate, because the young scientist had a job interview at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
Forty-nine years later, Tang has become one of OMRF’s and Oklahoma’s most accomplished scientists. But his story—from humble beginnings to life-changing discoveries—is not just his own. It’s the tale of OMRF, which celebrates its 60th birthday on Friday.
Chartered in 1946, OMRF began with a 77-county fund drive. The statewide effort benefited from, among other things, proceeds of a prize fight featuring Sugar Ray Robinson, a $25,000 donation orchestrated by Stork Club owner (and Oklahoma native) Sherman Billingsley and coin bucket collections at sporting events. Oklahoma wheat producers also pledged a percentage of their crops to OMRF. In one year alone, the farmers dedicated 9,000 bushels to OMRF.
OMRF had only 80 employees when, in 1957, Tang received—and accepted—a job as a research technician. “I was hired at a salary of $275 a month,” said Tang. “They told me that if they were happy with me after three months, they would raise my salary to $300 a month.”
Tang received that $25 raise—and many more. Indeed, for almost a half-century, he has called OMRF home. And in the intervening decades, he made major contributions to human health, discovering a previously unknown stomach protein, making crucial contributions to AIDS research and pinpointing an enzyme instrumental in the formation of Alzheimer’s disease.
Today, in addition to Tang, OMRF counts more than 500 staff members, including some of the world’s foremost immunologists and cardiovascular biologists. And it has become one of the nation’s leading independent medical research institutes.
OMRF’s scientists concentrate on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and heart disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences, and its researchers regularly publish papers in Nature, Cell, The New England Journal of Medicine and other leading scientific journals.
“The science at OMRF is phenomenal, but what really distinguishes us is our track record of translating lab work into diagnostics and treatments for disease,” said OMRF President Stephen Prescott. “OMRF has given birth to more drugs and tests than many large research universities. And that’s because we’re not just focused on making discoveries—we’re working to make discoveries that make a difference.”
OMRF’s work has given birth to Xigris, the first and only FDA-approved treatment for a blood infection that claims 500,000 lives each year, and Ceprotin, a revolutionary drug to treat children suffering from life-threatening blood-clotting complications. OMRF discoveries have helped create a risk assessment test for breast cancer and an experimental drug for the treatment of stroke.
Along the way, OMRF has received more than 250,000 individual gifts from Oklahomans. The support has come from leading philanthropic organizations like the Chapman Trusts in Tulsa and the Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City. But it’s also come from lesser-known givers like the little Edmond boy who, two summers ago, brought in the $12 he earned selling lemonade.
“All of it matters,” said Prescott. As an independent, not-for-profit institute, OMRF is not part of a university or of the state. “So donations from individuals are crucial,” he said. “Without them, we couldn’t provide our scientists with the seed money to break new research ground.”
Over the last decade, the foundation’s grant funding has grown at a rate matched by few medical research centers in the country. But Prescott is emphatic that OMRF must not rest on its laurels. “If we want to continue to compete with the institutions on the coasts, we must keep growing,” he said. To that end, OMRF plans to begin construction on a new research tower that will grow OMRF’s staff to nearly 1,000 employees in the coming decade.
Jordan Tang just smiles when asked whether he saw all of this coming when he first arrived at OMRF. “We knew the institution was going to grow because there was such good support from the entire state of Oklahoma,” he said. “But I certainly did not expect to see it grow this much.”
OMRF’s 60th birthday party will take place at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum on Friday. High-resolution digital photos of Jordan Tang and OMRF are available upon request.
